After 68 years, Korean War soldier comes home

Pfc. John Martin's remains will be buried Sunday, 68 years after he vanished from battlefield

The remains of Pfc. John Martin, who vanished in North Korea in late 1950, are removed from a Delta airplane and placed in a hearse at the Albany International Airport on Friday, Nov. 30, 2018 in Colonie, N.Y. On Sunday, the 68th anniversary of his disappearance and likely combat death during the Korea War, he will be buried next to his mother and father after a funeral in Schuylerville. (Lori Van Buren/Times Union)

Lori Van Buren/Albany Times Union2of34Pfc. John W. Martin, who went missing near the Chosin Reservoir in North Korea in December 1950.Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency3of34Relatives look on as the remains of Pfc. John Martin, who vanished in North Korea in late 1950, are removed from a Delta airplane at the Albany International Airport on Friday, Nov. 30, 2018 in Colonie, N.Y. His great, great nephew Airman 1st Class Schuyler Dolton is seen saluting at far right. On Sunday, the 68th anniversary of his disappearance and likely combat death during the Korea War, he will be buried next to his mother and father after a funeral in Schuylerville. (Lori Van Buren/Times Union)Lori Van Buren/Albany Times Union4of34Relatives, at right, look on as the remains of Pfc. John Martin, who vanished in North Korea in late 1950, are removed from a Delta airplane at the Albany International Airport on Friday, Nov. 30, 2018 in Colonie, N.Y. On Sunday, the 68th anniversary of his disappearance and likely combat death during the Korea War, he will be buried next to his mother and father after a funeral in Schuylerville. (Lori Van Buren/Times Union)Lori Van Buren/Albany Times Union5of34Relatives of Pfc. John Martin, who vanished in North Korea in late 1950, wait in a hospitality room for his remains to arrive at the Albany International Airport on Friday, Nov. 30, 2018 in Colonie, N.Y. On Sunday, the 68th anniversary of his disappearance and likely combat death during the Korea War, he will be buried next to his mother and father after a funeral in Schuylerville. (Lori Van Buren/Times Union)Lori Van Buren/Albany Times Union6of34Relatives of Pfc. John Martin, who vanished in North Korea in late 1950, wait in a hospitality room for his remains to arrive at the Albany International Airport on Friday, Nov. 30, 2018 in Colonie, N.Y. Marina Wilson, center, was one of his nieces. On Sunday, the 68th anniversary of his disappearance and likely combat death during the Korea War, he will be buried next to his mother and father after a funeral in Schuylerville. (Lori Van Buren/Times Union)Lori Van Buren/Albany Times Union7of34A Delta airplane carrying the remains of Pfc. John Martin, who vanished in North Korea in late 1950, lands at the Albany International Airport on Friday, Nov. 30, 2018 in Colonie, N.Y. On Sunday, the 68th anniversary of his disappearance and likely combat death during the Korea War, he will be buried next to his mother and father after a funeral in Schuylerville. (Lori Van Buren/Times Union)Lori Van Buren/Albany Times Union8of34The remains of Pfc. John Martin, who vanished in North Korea in late 1950, are removed from a Delta airplane at the Albany International Airport on Friday, Nov. 30, 2018 in Colonie, N.Y. His great, great nephew Airman 1st Class Schuyler Dolton is seen shaking hands with other service members. On Sunday, the 68th anniversary of his disappearance and likely combat death during the Korea War, he will be buried next to his mother and father after a funeral in Schuylerville. (Lori Van Buren/Times Union)Lori Van Buren/Albany Times Union9of34The remains of Pfc. John Martin, who vanished in North Korea in late 1950, are removed from a Delta airplane at the Albany International Airport on Friday, Nov. 30, 2018 in Colonie, N.Y. His great, great nephew Airman 1st Class Schuyler Dolton, second from left, is seen overlooking the removal. On Sunday, the 68th anniversary of his disappearance and likely combat death during the Korea War, he will be buried next to his mother and father after a funeral in Schuylerville. (Lori Van Buren/Times Union)Lori Van Buren/Albany Times Union10of34The remains of Pfc. John Martin, who vanished in North Korea in late 1950, are removed from a Delta airplane at the Albany International Airport on Friday, Nov. 30, 2018 in Colonie, N.Y. On Sunday, the 68th anniversary of his disappearance and likely combat death during the Korea War, he will be buried next to his mother and father after a funeral in Schuylerville. (Lori Van Buren/Times Union)Lori Van Buren/Albany Times Union11of34Relatives look on as the remains of Pfc. John Martin, who vanished in North Korea in late 1950, are removed from a Delta airplane at the Albany International Airport on Friday, Nov. 30, 2018 in Colonie, N.Y. On Sunday, the 68th anniversary of his disappearance and likely combat death during the Korea War, he will be buried next to his mother and father after a funeral in Schuylerville. (Lori Van Buren/Times Union)Lori Van Buren/Albany Times Union12of34

Two soldiers train their 30 caliber machine gun on Communist positions on the western front, during the Korean War, July 1952.

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1952: US soldiers dig in to a hill in Korea during the Korean war (1950-1953).

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During the Korean War, the 3rd US Army Band presents the American Flag and stands at attention with instruments near the ruins of the original Han River bridge, while waiting for a ceremony to mark the opening of the new bridge, October 19, 1950.

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During the Korean War, civilian pedestrians and troops walk past a hospital, Imjin, South Korea, 1951.

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During the Korean War, United States Army troops from the 84th Engineers stand with a sign marking the rebuilt Freedom Gate Bridge on the Imjin River, South Korea, September 17, 1952.

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circa 1950: An elderly woman and her grandchild wander among the debris of their wrecked home in the aftermath of an air raid by U.S. planes over Pyongyang, the Communist capital of North Korea.

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During the Korean War, soldiers and equipment are parachuted in an operation by United Nations airborne units, 1951.

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A dramatic shot of 155mm Howitzer fire during night action in the Korean War.

Actress Marilyn Monroe talks with Miran and April, twin brothers from the Puerto Rican baseball team of the 25th Infantry Division during her visit to the troops in Korea, February 1954.

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Two soldiers smiling and talking to another soldier wearing a rifle on his back during the Korean War, Korea, 1951.

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Women with placards demonstrating against the Korean War, as part of the Communist Peace Demonstration held at Marble Arch London.

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In the field during the Korean War, Lieutenant Colonel John Hopkins (center, nearest to flag pole), commanding officer of the First Battalion, Fifth Marine Regiment, leads his troops in the singing of the 'Star Spangled Banner' during memorial services, June 1951.

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Battle-weary American troops withdraw from Yong San in Korea.

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16th September 1950: Korean refugees threading their way through the bomb devastated streets of Inchon, after an American attack on the port.

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Korean civilians lie dead after an attempt to flee from the North Korean forces. They were caught in the line of fire during night attack by guerrilla forces near Yongsan on August 25, 1950.

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An American soldier comforts a fellow infantryman whose close friend has been killed in action, Haktong-ni area, Korea, August 1950. A corpsman fills out casualty tags in the background.

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Carrying her baby brother on her back, a war weary Korean girl walks by a stalled M-26 tank, at Haengju, Korea, June, 1951.

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United States Marines launch a 4.5 inch rocket barrage against the Chinese Communists during fighting in the Korean War, 1951.

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circa 1950: A Christian minister leads a funeral service in a cemetery filled with crosses for American soldiers killed in the Korean War, Korea. American soldiers kneel around the graves.

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circa 1950: An American soldier sleeps on his ammunition in the Mason area during the Korean war.

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Missouri soldiers from the 19th Infantry Regiment pose for a group portrait, along the Kumsong front, to wish folks back home a Happy New Year, during the Korean War, December 1951.

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During the Korean War, two American soldiers stand in a foxhole surrounded by sand bangs on the front lines, with vegetation and mountains in the background, South Korea, 1952.

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COLONIE — Schuyler Dolton flew across the country Friday, escorting the remains of a great-great-uncle who died almost five decades before he was born.

As Dolton's grandmother, grandfather, aunts and uncles grew emotional on the tarmac at Albany International Airport, the 21-year-old Airman 1st Class stood at attention while the flag-covered casket of Army Pfc. John Martin was carried to a waiting hearse for his final journey to a cemetery in Schuylerville.

Dolton is from the latest generation of a family that can trace its military service back to the American Revolutionary War. On Friday, it was his mission to make sure an ancestor killed on a frigid Korean battlefield nearly 68 years ago finally made it home.

"It's been a very humbling experience," Dolton said.

Martin vanished on Dec. 2, 1950, as U.N. forces battled the Chinese army at the Battle of the Chosin Reservoir — a brutal, protracted fight in a mountainous area where temperatures dropped as low as minus 35 degrees, and casualties were high on both sides.

Martin's remains were lost in North Korea along with thousands of other combatants in the battle. While they were turned over to the U.S. military in 2001, it took another 17 years before DNA tests could link the remains to a sample provided by one of Martin's brothers, who died in 2012 without getting confirmation that his sibling had been found.

The family — including Martin's nieces, nephews and their children — gathered in a quiet waiting room at the airport's fire station and waited for Delta Flight 2401 to land.

"I don't think of it as a mourning," said Marina Wilson, one of Martin's nieces. "It's just extreme sadness for the siblings and his parents because they didn't have the experience of him coming home."

Members of the military, State Police, firefighters, and airport staff stood at attention as an honor guard carried the casket off the plane.

"Everyone's been so gracious and warm and caring for a man who's been gone for 68 years," said Nora Santore, the daughter of Martin's sister Eleanor, as a van brought the family back to the fire house.

Martin's parents and all of his siblings died before his remains were identified. "They're all up there watching the spectacle," Santore said.

The soldier will be buried next to his parents Sunday at Prospect Hill Cemetery in Schuylerville.

The November-December 1950 battle at Chosin Reservoir "had significant, far-reaching consequences," said Courtney Burns, the director of the state Military Museum in Saratoga Springs.

The civil war on the peninsula, at that point only six months old, had already seen a series of reversals — including the June 1950 North Korean invasion across the 38th Parallel, which was repulsed by the United Nations coalition force in the weeks that followed. The U.N. forces pushed back across the border in late summer, and inflicted regular defeats on the North Koreans.

Gen. Douglas MacArthur promised victory by Christmas, and pressed the enemy closer to the Chinese border. But Burns and other military historians said MacArthur's gambit taxed supply lines and underestimated the possibility of a counteroffensive by Chinese forces, who had entered the war on the North Korean side in October on the orders of Chairman Mao Zedong..

Martin was a member of the Medical Company, 32nd Infantry Regiment, 7th Infantry Division, one of the divisions that were part of X Corp's amphibious invasion of the Korean peninsula at Wonsan in October.

As the Chinese closed in near Chosin Reservoir, both sides faced sub-zero temperatures — explosives were needed to create foxholes — and supply shortages. Veterans of the battle describe themselves as the "Chosin Frozen" and "the Chosin Few."

X Corps was eventually able to escape to the sea; the Marines fought their way south, suffering heavy casualties.

By Dec. 6, the Army had evacuated roughly 1,500 service members. The remaining soldiers — more than half of the original force — had been captured or killed, or were missing in enemy territory.

The history of the battle, Burns said, "just speaks to the individual valor and perseverance of the individual soldiers involved."

Martin's name did not subsequently appear on prisoner of war lists, and no returning POWs reported seeing him among the captured. He was declared deceased as of Dec. 31, 1951. Five years later, his remains were declared "non-recoverable."

His family spent years pleading with the U.S. military in the hopes of learning his fate. Their relatives say they never gave up hope Martin would one day make it home.